NEW YORK—The blame for the breakdown of labor negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA lies at the feet of management that trudged back to league headquarters after a brief meeting, then scuttled talks with a voicemail from deputy commissioner Bill Daly to union special counsel Steve Fehr.

The blame for taking hockey fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride that ended with a grisly derailment? That belongs to the NHLPA and specifically to executive director Donald Fehr.

For more than 15 minutes, Fehr talked about how close a deal was, defying expectations after most reports over the course of the day had been grim. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is, but you could forgive a lockout-weary hockey world for buying it.

"There doesn't seem to be very much room (between the sides), certainly not unbridgeable room," Fehr said. "We think the positions the players took today are a clear outline for how to end this particular dispute."

There still were issues to be settled—players proposed an eight-year limit on contracts in response to the owners' limit of five for free agents changing teams and seven for players staying put; and there appeared to be room for compromise on "back-diving" contracts, whose salary values drop off severely as they go on, creating a lower cap hit. But, not to worry, Fehr said; under the players' system, the issues would be "solved without question."

While those issues remained in the balance, the main thing is always money, and Fehr said, "We think there is a complete agreement on dollars. If that's the case, and we think it is, there wouldn't seem to be very much reason that we couldn't conclude an agreement in the near future."

Agreement! Near future! Certainly not unbridgeable! Hooray! Rev up the Zamboni!

Meanwhile, Steve Fehr's phone was ringing. He couldn't pick it up in the middle of his brother's news conference, so he had to let Daly go to voicemail. Donald Fehr finished up, and players started their own mini-news conferences to talk about how happy a feeling it was to see the finish line in sight.

"The characterization that I just heard transmitted to us, that we were close, that reminds me of the last time the union said we were close, and we were a billion dollars apart," Gary Bettman said later. "Spinning us all into an emotional frenzy over maybe we're close, and we're going to be playing hockey tomorrow, is terribly unfair to our fans, and it's unfair to this process."

There was no arguing with Bettman on that point, but the damage was already done, because when Daly stomped out of the Westin Times Square, he did so without comment. The union still could have waited to hear back from the league before going to meet the media, and certainly could have let Steve Fehr check his voicemail before sending the players out to spread more sunshine.

And then, suddenly, the player media sessions stopped. Sidney Crosby and the rest of the NHLPA's negotiating group lined back up where they had been minutes earlier, and seemed as confused by what was happening as the reporters. "I don't know," Crosby could be heard saying, and common sense would say he was responding to an otherwise unheard, "What's going on?"

Steve Fehr returned, earbuds in, and whispered in Ron Hainsey's ear, "Don will be right back." Sure enough, Don came right back.

"There has been a development," he said. "It's not positive."

Put the Zamboni back in the Zamboni garage.

The rest of what Fehr said did not particularly matter, and neither did much of the half-hour NHLPA rip session that Bettman conducted afterward alongside Daly. If you were a hockey fan, your eyes pretty much glazed over after "It's not positive."

All that was left was to see whether the league announced further cancellations of games, or a drop-dead date for the season. Neither happened, officially, though with games so far only canceled through next Friday, and no clue as to when talks will start again, the ax is going to fall again soon. And Bettman did acknowledge that the 48-game 1995 season was pretty much the minimum the NHL would consider playing as a shortened campaign—so by inference, the drop-dead date is sometime in the middle of next month.

That means there is still time, but it's hard to feel good about that now, because it only guarantees another round of this nonsense—maybe two. And who can blame anyone for not wanting to get back on a roller coaster that just dumped them off the steepest drop?